Wichita eagle., 1887-06-12

as OIteQ I6tOuCu tue uyStlc CuCIU Ol
memory stretching from every battle field
and patriot grave to every living heart
and hearthstone all over this broad land
and swell the chorus of the Union
'The avenues of honor and preferment
must be kept open to all American citizens.
The policy, north or south that closes
them to any can issue only in evil. The
Union sentiment must be strengthened,
not by ceremonial exchange of conven-
tional courtesies between the blue and the
gray, but by practically making the union
soldier in the south, or the confederate in
the north, feel that he is not under civil
ban because of former military afiilation,
provided both are equally loyal now
to the old flag. Nor should a
military record without other merit
be an unlimited passport to social position
or political preferment. Any city, county
or state adopting the policy of entailing q
social, commercial or political disability
upon those who may be out of harmony
with the war traditions of the dominant
party, becomes center of alienation, for
hidden ground to the Ostracised, and hin
ders that freedom of opinion essential to
manliness, patriotism, good government
and stable union.
IF professions of reconciliation and love
for the union of these states are to be &C
counted of any worth. and not the idle
vaporings of mere sentimentalism. they
must take on body and substance by fair,
another by those whose convictions were In
conflict. We are happy to believe that, fol
the most part, the logic of events, under
the guidance of Divine Providence.
has convinced these whose political
beliefs led them to contend against
the government that it was a mistake.
While riding over the grand old noun
tains of West Virginia, conversing with a
southern gentleman, he remarked. i
fought all over this country for the ''lost
cause We'll, sir, said 1, You have no
good reason to regret that your cause was
lost. No. he replid, I have no regrets.
And we may say, with confidence, that
multitudes of his comrades not only have
no regrets, but rejoice today that it was
lost 1t is matter for sincere congratula-
ton that as whole people we are more
homogeneous in political faith and civiliZa-
ton than at any time since the Republic
was founded. No army could be mar
shalled now to oppose the cause in devo-
ton to which the dead comrades sacrificed
their lives. By common consent the in
tegrity of our national union must and
shall be preserved.
Without questioning the sincerity of
those who bravely fought on the other
side; or, for one moment Understanding
their martial valor, or decrying the affec
ton felt for them by surviving comrades
and friends, we would be false to our own
convictions and ungrateful to our heroic
dead if we should withhold from them the
honor due them. Their cause was just.
Right nobly did they face foemen worthy
of their steel. Bravely they fought and
gloriously they died, not for section, but
for the welfare and integrity of the whole
country.
In passing, must utter the feeling that
the common mode of speech is very I'M
fortunate by which the great civil war is
as war between the north and
south. Very true, the vast majority in
each of the opposing armies were recruited
their respective sections. But large
of the National armies were
furnished by southern states, our own
beloved Kentucky among them, while not
a few followers of the confed-
crate flag were from the north. And a
much larger number in the north stayed at
home, only to impede the movements of
the Union forces as they swept on to final
victory 1t was simply war against the
national government. Around the old flag
rallied all, north and south, who believed
that the national Union shoul be maintain
ed at whatever cost of treasure and blood.
We are quite willing that those organized
and contending against us shall plead in
of their attempt to set up a
rival government anything consistent with
the truth of history, even the faults or
wrongs of the general government, or OF
any class of American citizens; but it is
useless and unwise to sophisticate reason
and conscience with words that do but
darken counsel. Not one of these honored
dead, nor any of their surviving comrades
could have been enlisted in a crusade
against the south. But when our govern
ment. with all our free institutions, was
by what we believed mis-
guided zeal for sectional interests, we
counted not our lives dear to us, if we
could but save the glorious heritage trans
mitted from the fathers of our common
country.
eff the war was as sometimes said waged
by the North against the South for SUI
premacy, then In the open court Of the
civilized world cur government might be
convicted of the grossest injustice in max
ing such munifcent provisions for our sol
diers, their widows and orphans, without
the same benefits 10 those who
were in opposition. Nay, more, it would
have been guilty of unparalleled crime If
the whole power of the government had
not been interposed between the warning
sections to stop the ignominious strife.
Moreover, this view of the war tends to
perpetuate sectional prejudice and to fix in
the rising generation Of the South the feel
ing that their section was the victim Of
Northern injustice Such results tend TO
hinder that free and hearty intercourse
between those on opposite sides OF
an imaginary line so necessary 10 cement
the whole people in the easy bonds
of lasting social and political union
And 1t goes for saying that for time sub
seauent to the war the physical develop
ment of the south was retarded partly, 10y
the prevalence of this view. B0urbonisIn
may yet retard, unless wiser counsels shall
be heard.
Though | thus speak, | an not faith
less. but believe the day not far distant
when the new south shall be revealed to
universal recognition. Her mineral wealth,
fertile soil, genial climate and whole soul
cd people must command what she so just
" deserves, the respect, confidence ana
hearty God-speed of all men. Her posi-.
bilities are simply Undesirable. And |
take great pleasure in saying that, after a
residence Of five years 10 the beautiful.
growing and prosperous city Of Louisville,
have never been more Hospitality treated
nv apv community although from the